1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the hyper-spectral imaging field and, in particular, to a monolithic Offner spectrometer and various components like a diffraction grating and a slit all of which are manufactured by using a state-of-the-art diamond machining process.
2. Description of Related Art
A spectrometer is a device which receives a light signal as an input and produces as an output a light signal which is spread out, or dispersed, in space according the different wavelength components, or colors, of the input light signal. A detector attached to the spectrometer can analyze the output signal, called the spectrum, to quantify the amount of each wavelength component that is present in the input signal.
A specific type of spectrometer is known as an Offner spectrometer which can be used to produce images of a remote object over a contiguous range of narrow spectral bands. This type of imaging is known as hyper-spectral imaging and has recently emerged as an important part of the military/aerospace solution to airborne and spaceborne reconnaissance and remote sensing. Basically, the hyper-spectral imaging system utilizes an Offner spectrometer and an advanced data processing technology to produce imagery with embedded spectral signature data. This signature data is useful in a wide-variety of applications such as target designation/recognition, missile plume identification and mine detection (for example).
In addition, the hyper-spectral imaging system can be used in a wide-variety of commercial applications as well like cancer detection, environmental monitoring, agricultural monitoring and mineral exploration (for example). Because, the hyper-spectral imaging system is important to military, aerospace, and commercial industries, manufacturers are actively trying to develop new and better ways to make and improve the performance of the Offner spectrometer and associated components like a slit and a diffraction grating. Several new manufacturing processes and the resulting manufactured Offner spectrometer and associated components like the slit and the diffraction grating are the subject of the present invention.